Reuters to cut 3,000 jobs after 1st annual loss

LONDON — Reuters Group PLC on Tuesday posted its first annual loss since becoming a publicly traded company in 1984 and announced it would cut 3,000 jobs, or nearly 19 percent of its workforce.

Poor market conditions and a sharp drop in revenue for its electronic brokerage business, Instinet, contributed to a net loss of $630 million for 2002 compared with a net profit of $74 million in 2001. The results were in line with analysts' expectations. Sales fell by 8 percent, to $5.73 billion.

The decline in sales accelerated in the fourth quarter, with quarterly sales tumbling by 14 percent, to $1.41 billion. It forecast further deterioration in sales during the first half of 2003. Sales were expected to fall by 9 percent in the first quarter and even more sharply in the second quarter, it said.

Despite Instinet's losses of $592 million, Reuters said it had no plans to sell its 63 percent stake in the business.

The company plans to reduce its workforce to 13,000 from 16,000 over the next three years but didn't specify where it would make the job cuts. Reuters has eliminated almost 2,500 jobs since July 2001.